Adif - Abrimos caminos

EUROPEAN UNION

During the period 2000-2006 co-financing was provided as follows:

During the period 2007-2013 co-financing will be provided as follows.

(Information valid at 31 December 2011)

Construction of the new railway line will link León and Asturias with a modern high-speed line, permitting both passenger and freight trains to run. Because of this, the line is highly important socioeconomically for the territorial structure of Spain.

With a total estimated investment of 3.006 billion euros, the works to overcome the Cantabria Mountain Range are a great challenge for engineering, in Europe and globally, because of the geological and morphological diversity of these mountains.  

Present conventional line data, La Robla (León) - Pola de Lena (Asturias) section

The Pajares New Line is part of the León–Asturias Line, belonging to the High-Speed North-Northwest Corridor. It is specifically located in the section between La Robla (León) and Pola de Lena (Asturias), in the central hub of this line, between the León - La Robla and Pola de Lena - Oviedo sections.

It is 49.7 km long and, in addition to the construction of two main Pajares tunnels, between Pola de Gordón (León) and Telledo (Asturias), includes the outer stretches in the direction of La Robla and Pola de Lena.

The Pajares Tunnels, approximately 25 km in length, will be the sixth longest in Europe and the seventh in the world. Another important tunnel to be built is Pontones, 6 km long.

The construction of these Tunnels allows the natural wall that the Puerto de Pajares mountainous massif has represented historically to be crossed, while ensuring a high-speed connection between Madrid, Castile-León and Asturias.

The distance between Asturias and Castile-León will be shortened by 33 km in relation to the current railway route, with a new route designed with high-speed parameters, where trains will be able to reach speeds of over 250 km/h.

The time taken to travel along the new line will be approximately 15 minutes.

The project includes the links with the current León-Gijón conventional gauge line, near La Robla and in Pola de Lena station.

The Pajares New Line will be suitable for passenger and freight trains. Thus, not only the citizens, but also Asturian companies will benefit from the advantages offered by the new railway access to Asturias.

Maximum optimisation, operating capacity and efficiency of the new infrastructure will be achieved through the installation, during a first stage, of Iberian gauge (1,668 mm).

Thanks to this solution, freight trains will also be able to use the new infrastructure, thus avoiding the winding and slow route of the current conventional network. Railway traffic from the Asturian ports of Gijón and Avilés bound for the central plateau will be boosted with this measure.

Subsequently, in a second stage, the third international track will be laid, which will enable passenger and freight traffic using UIC gauge.

Due to geological and morphological complications to be overcome in the mountain massif, the Pajares Tunnels represent a great engineering challenge, similar in scale to the Guadarrama Tunnels on the Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid High-Speed Line, of which it is an extension towards the north of the Peninsula.

The heterogeneity of the formations to be passed through during the works made it necessary to design a truly wide range of structural elements for the tunnel linings, which were defined based on the geological and geotechnical studies undertaken for the drafting of the projects, and taking account of ADIF’s experience in building major tunnels.

The safety of all workers is the most important factor in creating tunnels of this size. From this point of view, tunnel boring machines have represented a breakthrough in tunnel construction.

Work safety plans are set out through two operational plans: the Health and Safety Plan, and the Self-protection and Emergency Plan (PAE).

To maintain the highest level of safety, the tunnels will have interconnecting galleries every 400 metres, which will facilitate maintenance tasks and evacuation, if necessary. 

There is a preferred stopping point halfway along its 25 km, prepared for evacuations in case of any emergencies. If a train suffers an incident (breakdown, supply fault, etc.) it can stop so that passengers can be transferred to another train or be evacuated to the exterior through the Buiza access gallery.

Control centres will be located in La Robla (León) and Campomanes (Asturias) for safety in the Pajares Tunnels.

Another characteristic element in this type of work is the use of tunnel boring machines (TBMs).

Five TBMs were used to excavate the Pajares tunnels.

These machines are used to excavate hard rock, but are based on different technologies in order to provide solutions for each type of ground.

Safety is the fundamental and main advantage offered by this type of machines, since the tunnel excavation and propping take place inside the machine's protective shield. They also allow the tunnel's final lining to be put in place. In this way, with the placement of the prefabricated, reinforced concrete key segments, the tunnel structure is left totally finished as the tunnelling machine progresses.

Environmental protection actions will be carried out throughout the work in order to ensure railway integration into the environment.

In this regard, and in order to safeguard the natural richness of the territory crossed by the Pajares New Line, an environmental protection policy has been applied as one of the strategic priorities of the Administrator of Railway Infrastructures (ADIF).

Planning and building a base tunnel 25 km long involves a clear commitment to minimising the environmental impact that can be caused by a high-speed railway line. In this case, the impact is limited to the tunnel mouths, the material resulting from excavation and the implementation of auxiliary worksite systems.

The most significant environmental actions include: